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We play games!Mon, 21 Jan 2019 12:00:16 +0000en-GBhourly1We play games!Ready UpcleanReady Upwebmaster@ready-up.netwebmaster@ready-up.net (Ready Up)We play and talk about gamesReady Uphttp://ready-up.net/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/ready-up-podcast-logo-3000x3000.pnghttp://ready-up.net
Aodhán’s Game Of The Decade – Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriotshttp://ready-up.net/2019/01/21/aodhans-game-of-the-decade-metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots/
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 12:00:16 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100761I think it shows how much the Metal Gear series means to me personally when the two games I was deciding between for my game of the decade were Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and while I do love Revengeance’s commentary on what it means to kill and war as a business, wrapped in Platinum Games style character action, my choice is Metal Gear Solid 4. Hopefully I can explain this decision without gushing too much.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the fourth instalment of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series that takes place in the futuristic year of 2014, 5 years after the Big Shell incident and 9 years after the hostage situation on Shadow Moses Island. The game follows an older Solid Snake chasing down Liquid Ocelot who is planning an insurrection against the organisation that controls society, ‘The Patriots’.

For me, a big part of the reason why Metal Gear Solid 4 is the greatest game of the decade is because it nails everything that makes Metal Gear so great and pushes them even further as concepts. Guns of the Patriots improves on the already stellar, but at times stiff gameplay of previous Metal Gear Solid titles by introducing third person aiming and further sneaking options.

This is what the inside of my brain looks like. (Source: Moby Games)

MGS4 continues its trend of some of the best boss fights in gaming. The boss fights are excellent throughout, the standouts for me being the hide and seek battle with Laughing Octopus and the Mech Battle between Metal Gear Rex and Metal Gear Ray.

Guns of the Patriots also pushes Hideo Kojima’s completely nuts art direction even further, with storytelling that is completely mind bending and blowing your nips off with narrative twists that flip the metal gear series on it’s head.

MGS4 absolutely nails these Metal Gear features, making it a gaming experience that is absolutely mind-blowing from start to finish. However, for me, the thing that truly pushes Guns of the Patriots to that game of the decade status is the fact that it acts as a conclusion.

This. This makes me feel things. (Source: Moby Games)

We have had years to grow attached to these characters and wrapping up their arcs provided potentially the greatest scenes in video-game history and cemented Metal Gear as the greatest narrative experience in all of video-games. That is not hyperbole. The microwave corridor and the final fight elicit emotions that I don’t think that can ever be replicated in any other kind of media, let alone any other game.

This my second favourite between two old dudes on top of a submarine (Source: Moby Games)

Above all, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots provides closure. Closure to the greatest overarching narrative in video games. Closure through two old lads boxing the heads off each other. How could it not be my favourite?

]]>Ready Up Podcast S08E06 – Nutty Physicshttp://ready-up.net/2018/12/03/ready-up-podcast-s08e06-nutty-physics/
Mon, 03 Dec 2018 10:00:02 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100750Susan and Dean chat to Liam and Ben from the Conversation Hat Podcast! Go ahead and follow @ConvoHatPodcast or check them out on Soundcloud, or wherever you like to listen to your podcasts. A good place to start is ‘Gaslit by LucasArts‘, the episode where Susan and Stewart answered questions from the hat. In this episode, we chat about Fallout 76, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more.

Thanks for listening to the podcast! Follow us on twitch.tv/readyup to get notified of future recordings and other streams.

Do us a solid and leave a rating and review if you enjoy the show! Subscribe using iTunes or our Podcast RSS Feed.

]]>Susan and Dean chat to Liam and Ben from the Conversation Hat Podcast!Susan and Dean chat to Liam and Ben from the Conversation Hat Podcast!Ready Upclean1:30:49Ready Up Podcast S08E05 – Wild Ridehttp://ready-up.net/2018/11/26/ready-up-podcast-s08e05-wild-ride/
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 10:00:39 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100746Susan and Adam chat to Lexa from the Manga Forum Podcast and Dead Horse Podcast! Go ahead and follow @themangaforum or on Apple podcasts, and @HorsePodcast or on Soundcloud. In this episode, we go on a wild ride through everything anime, manga, sim games and more.

Thanks for listening to the podcast! Follow us on twitch.tv/readyup to get notified of future recordings and other streams.

Do us a solid and leave a rating and review if you enjoy the show! Subscribe using iTunes or our Podcast RSS Feed.

]]>Susan and Adam chat to Lexa from the Manga Forum Podcast and Dead Horse Podcast.Susan and Adam chat to Lexa from the Manga Forum Podcast and Dead Horse Podcast.Ready Upclean1:14:06The Playstation Classic line-uphttp://ready-up.net/2018/11/24/the-playstation-classic-line-up/
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 11:03:11 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100736It was bound to happen. With Sony releasing the news of the Playstation Classic line-up, it’s no surprise that it would cause despair for some fans asking why their favourite game isn’t included. But while the Nintendo classic line-up had its fair share of that, it seems to be far greater for Sony. And honestly, it’s not that surprising.

When the console was first announced it raised a few eyebrows with its old, non-Dualshock controller, taking us way back to the beginning of the Playstation era. People suggested this could be because they plan on releasing a new, updated, Dualshock controller with another Classic console at a later date, and with the games line-up fully revealed, it just adds some more fuel to the fire.

First of all there are some games that are definitely considered iconic Playstation experiences. Resident Evil: Directors Cut, Tekken 3, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid are all accounted for, however there are some notable absences. Most notable for myself is, how do you have a console celebrating the history of the Playstation brand and not include a Tomb Raider? Yes, like all early 3D titles they’ve aged poorly, but still, Lara Croft was for a long period of time synonymous with Sony’s console. The same can be said about Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, both of which’s absence could possibly be traced back to Activision’s need to resell remastered versions.

The full list of what games can be found inside.

The Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy was huge, far surpassing anyone’s sales expectations, and with the Spyro Collection on the horizon, it’s no surprise that Activision would want to keep all of its properties close to its chest. Although I’m sure Gex was still available if Sony wanted to dig deeper into the platforming mascot archive.

Like a lot of people when it came to the original Playstation a lot of my personal memories involved more licensed fare. The big one was Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (another Activision product) and this is where you get into the sticky mess of re-licensing products. Not just with the skaters themselves, but with the amount of music that to be honest is just as important to the full experience. Music is a common issue, as with the arrival of the CD game format comes the ability to put some high quality licensed tracks on the soundtrack. None were more influential at the time than Wipeout. A Playstation mainstay that has been put out to pasture with the death of its original developer, it was huge for the console and to see it not included is quite sad.

Well they at least picked the best Tekken game.

Wipeout may perfectly encapsulate my feelings of this entire classic console. Desperate to capitalise on the success of Nintendo Classics range, Sony saw dollar signs in their eyes and greenlit the entire console before thinking of what licensing tasks they would need to accomplish. In the end it seems like they just found what games they could get for the most minimal effort imaginable. Well, it’s either that or they are already prepping the next Playstation Classic for 2019.

This is all subjective though. I mean, maybe for someone the original Grand Theft Auto and Rayman were just as influential as a Wipeout or Gran Turismo. I can speak for myself though and say I’m far less interested in it than I was when it was first announced. And now at the time of writing some more impressions are coming out regarding the hardware and it doesn’t sound great with input lag being a big offender and the fact that when played on our modern TV’s text can be displayed as quite blurry.

I’m sure more impressions will appear as we get closer to release, but for now, nothing here is making me press the pre-order button, and that’s a shame.

]]>Jason Lives – Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle reviewhttp://ready-up.net/2018/11/09/jason-lives-friday-the-13th-killer-puzzle-review/
Fri, 09 Nov 2018 10:00:35 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100700Slayaway Camp, released a couple of years ago by Blue Wizard Digital, was a neat little puzzle game that really paid great homage to 80s slashers. Now they’re back with a semi-sequel, and brought the Friday the 13th license with them.

Killer Puzzle is an isometric game that sort of plays out like a sliding block puzzle. The aim of the game is to use Jason to murder all the characters on the screen, before killing the Final Girl, Final Geek, or whatever the game decides to call the character that pops up right at the end. Naturally, this all becomes quite bloody, at least for a game with this cartoon style. Big headed characters, a quaint visual style… soon splashes of red come across the screen as Jason can use one of the many weapons in the game to chop, dice and slice the many teens in the game.

Puzzles start simple, but soon become more challenging.

What starts off as fairly easy soon becomes challenging with obstacles and the need to kill off characters in a specific order. Jason only slides in one of four directions and the only thing that can stop him are the walls or a teen you’re about to kill. It’s possible to become stuck which is where the handy rewind and restart buttons come into effect. You also have your mother’s decapitated head in the corner that can give you a hint or just reveal the entire puzzle if you so wish.

There’s quite an ingenuity to some of the puzzles. Moving next to a teen or killing someone in front of them, for instance, will cause them to run in the opposite direction, and some puzzles require them to be in a specific position so you can reach the final victim. Later levels introduce traps that don’t just kill your prey but Jason also. This comes in the form of bonfires, bear traps, water and more. Then there are cops that will kill you if you come face to face with them, or the cats which, if killed cause an instant fail state. Because animal cruelty is a step too far for our sweet boy Jason. And that’s just a small taste of the mechanics the game eventually throws at you.

What fans of the Friday the 13th series, like me, will enjoy is the many homages it pays to the source material. With twelve movies, there is a lot of material to play with. Starting out in Camp Crystal Lake it soon takes detours through prisons, New York, space and more, with a good variety in the twelve different areas. It’s clear the creators are big fans because while it’s easy to look at a film like Jason Takes Manhattan and set a level in New York, it takes real fans to reference the fact that the majority of that movie takes place on a boat.

The kills are more amusing than gory. Though there is sadly a limited number of them.

The care and attention to the Friday the 13th universe also playing into the variety of Jasons you can select. Starting with classic Jason you can soon unlock a number of others. Some are brand new (post-apocalyptic Jason) and others are taken more directly from the movies (for instance Uber Jason from my personal favourite, Jason X). While a lot has been taken from the film series, the levels the developers have created especially for this game actually feel like they could’ve been a part of Friday the 13th canon and is actually quite unfortunate that they were never turned into a full-fledged movie. A Friday the 13th set in a Mad Max-style wasteland would’ve got my money instantly, but I digress.

On top of the standard puzzle mode there is a daily death which, as the name suggests, pops up a daily puzzle for the player to complete. Doing so 13 times in a row unlocks a new Jason to play with. Then there’s Murder Marathon. In the main game, during the final kill you have to stop a moving bar inside a small red section to perform a kill, otherwise, the teen escapes – Murder Marathon mode basically takes that concept and has you trying to do that as many times as you can in a row. It’s a simple little time sink, and once you’ve got enough to unlock a new Jason outfit then there’s little chance in returning. Even though it does have an amazing 80s style soundtrack over the top.

If there’s one downside to Killer Puzzle it’s that it won’t be long before you’re seeing the same kills over and over. It’s possible to skip the animation, but the lack of variety definitely shows. Also, unlocking weapons once you level up is done in a loot box style system. And the weapons themselves don’t appear to trigger different kill animations. For instance, I was using a baseball bat and Jason was killing people as if it was a machete (stabbing them through the eye etc.)

While there is a definite joy in being a Friday the 13th fan and seeing all the different homages, you don’t have to be in love with the series to get enjoyment from Killer Puzzle. If you can like a good mind-bender then there’s plenty of content here for you to enjoy, with some decent tongue-in-cheek humour and a good challenge. And if you enjoy this, then you should3 check out the developer’s previous game, Slayaway Camp.

]]>Susan and Dean chat to Matt from Gas Lantern Games about Ant Empire, ants and more.Susan and Dean chat to Matt from Gas Lantern Games about Ant Empire, ants and more.Ready Upclean47:43The Forgotten Son Of Capcom’s Forgotten Sonshttp://ready-up.net/2018/11/07/the-forgotten-son-of-capcoms-forgotten-sons/
Wed, 07 Nov 2018 10:00:52 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100707The list of Capcom’s recognised and beloved characters is astronomical, second only to Nintendo in the rankings of all-star characters. Between every Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Resident Evil, Final Fight and Mega Man, it’s understandable that some beloved characters have been pushed to the background and forgotten. However, some otherwise forgotten from previous years have been making a bit of a resurgence recently. The announcement of the Capcom Beat ‘em up bundle, gave a revival to long-lost series like Captain Commando and Knights of the Round and laid a path for the potential revival of other long-neglected games like Power Stone and Rival Schools.

It’s in this context that I’d like to talk about the potential that lies within what I believe is the most forgotten of Capcom’s forgotten children: Zack and Wiki.

If you don’t remember what Zack and Wiki was, it was a Capcom-made, Wii-exclusive puzzle adventure game that came out in 2007. In the plethora of Capcom cult classics that are still requested to return, Zack and Wiki are never mentioned, why?

The overall premise of Zack and Wiki is pretty simple. Aspiring Pirate boy Zack and his monkey sidekick Wiki complete puzzles across multiple treasure maps to collect the cursed body parts of a fabled pirate named Barbaros so he can lead them to ‘treasure island’ and his legendary pirate ship. Like I said, a simple, but effective premise to get behind for this swashbuckling adventure (there’s a reason Steel Ball Run is basically the same thing).

Zack and Wiki free the golden head of Barbaros from his cramped and probably smelly prison. (Via Nintendo eshop)

I’d like to talk start off with the game’s major strengths: its art style and character design. Some people might be sick of cell-shaded art styles in 2018, but this game’s areas are still so visually charming and aesthetically pleasing to me. The same sentiment is shared with its character design. I feel like every character design in this game is a slam dunk, from the savage little enemies, to the imposing bosses, the wide and varying members of Zack’s ‘Sea Rabbits’ crew, and even the antagonist Captain Rose. This cast of charming characters in this visual splendour of an art style produce a big smile every time, but none are more charming and loveable than that crafty little pirate boy who dreams of being the worlds greatest pirate and his shapeshifting golden monkey pal (if you’re about to make a one piece comparison, let me nip that right in the bud.)

Point to a single thing about these designs that aren’t great. Can’t do it, can you? (Via Neoseeker.com)

The game is puzzle-based and follows the traditional point-and-click style, using the Wii mote to point Zack where you want him to go and different kinds of Wii mote movements to solve the puzzles. The puzzles are well balanced in terms of their difficulty, sticking around the Professor Layton level of difficulty. Not “The Witness” levels of mind-bendingly hard but still having a couple of headscratchers in there. However, this may vary for people who are smarter than me, and trust me, that is many people.

Using a centipede as a saw to chop down a tree to escape the approaching wreckage of a cargo plane. How many games have done that? (Via Nintendo eshop)

So the game is a visual wonder with a good range of fun yet challenging puzzles. Now onto my only gripe with the game, the controls. I know it’s a bit played out to rag on about motion controls in 2018, and I would like just to preface this with the fact that I’ve always been a Wii apologist, as I’ve always thought the Wii’s motion controls were at least passable. But this is the motion control straw that broke the motion control camel’s back (nailed it).

I’d like to make clear that the motion controls in this game are for the most part fine; a bit jittery here and there but mostly fine. However, there is an optional minigame where Barbaros’ personal musician, named “Bonelich,” plays a little tune and you have to ring a bell in rhythm with the song, in a rhythm game style.

I’m going to have stress dreams of this menace of a maestro for as long as I live. (Via Zack and Wiki Wikia)

Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Except I am pretty sure that this game is 100% impossible. Ringing the Wii mote like a bell in rhythm with what is displayed on screen never seems to work, no matter how accurate or careful you are. This means having to repeat it over and over again, which also gives you a sore arm as well (this game hurt me, I’m suing). This may not seem so bad, but this optional minigame unlocks upgrades for Wiki and extra treasure maps, so if you want to 100% the game, look forward to a sore arm, either from repeatedly playing the minigame or punching a hole through your TV like I almost did.

So do I think it’s likely, or even necessary for this game to get a revival via a sequel? Honestly, no. As much as I’d love to see Zack and Wiki get another game to nail the concept without the motion control issue, I don’t see it happening and I don’t know if a sequel is what is really needed. However, I think these characters are pure gold (heh), and it would be a huge waste for them to not be used like this.

However, I believe I have a proposition that could work. One Capcom property that fans have been dying for a revival of is Power Stone, the 3D arena fighting game that originally appeared in the arcades and on the Dreamcast. Fans have been waiting for a new Power Stone since the PSP re-release from 2006, and if that new Power Stone happens, I know a certain duo who would absolutely fit right in.

Whether this is what brings Zack and Wiki back to us, or if it is any other capacity, I’ll be waiting, Capcom, waiting by window, staring at the moon, waiting for you to come back into my life, with my favourite pirate and monkey duo.

]]>Ascending difficulty – oOo: Ascension reviewhttp://ready-up.net/2018/11/05/ascending-difficulty-ooo-ascension-review/
Mon, 05 Nov 2018 11:45:03 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100718oOo: Ascension is an arcade puzzle game that involves solving ways to complete a level while also challenging your reflex skills. I think I must be a sucker for punishment, because I love these kinds of games that push me to rage because I’m so bad at them.

The first tagline I saw for this game was ‘Dying repeatedly never looked so good’ and it couldn’t be more on the money. The graphics in this game are absolutely beautiful, and the UI is purely image-based (which can be risky, but the devs have done a good job of relaying information without using words). The game is pretty straightforward and utilises the isolation technique very well – you start with a ship that you have to move from A to B while avoiding the walls, otherwise you explode. The entire game follows this same principle, but with each level it adds more obstacles, enemies to run from and walls to evade, layering the complexity until you reach a level that completely stumps you. That level for me was the final level in world 2.

I lost count of the amount of times I tried this level, that by the time I completed it, I screamed because I was so happy. Playing it reminded me a lot of playing games like Cuphead and Super Meat Boy – they’re not similar mechanics, but they’re the types of games that at various points you will end up playing a level over and over and over until you know it inside out and finally complete it. If you’re the kind of person who is a glutton for punishment (like me) and enjoys games like Binding of Isaac or Geometry Wars, you’ll like this game a lot.

One caveat to be aware of when purchasing this game is that it’s controller only, so do not purchase if you don’t have a controller!

]]>Going loopy – Resynth reviewhttp://ready-up.net/2018/11/01/going-loopy-resynth-review/
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:00:19 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100680Do you know Sokoban? Even if you’re not aware of the 1982 original, you’ve probably seen it as a minigame somewhere. It’s a single-player, grid-based puzzle where you push boxes or boulders or into marked locations. Mess it up, and you’ll block off your path and render the level impossible.

But while Sokoban-style games have since become a genre in their own right, it’s taken the last 36 years to realise what the formula was missing: electronic music. And Resynth is here to redress the balance.

It’s a disco! Wait, no – it’s a puzzle

You see, each of Resynth’s grid-based puzzles is also a musical loop, waiting to be unlocked. All of the components – the ‘boulders’, the ‘holes’ and more – are also synth notes and drum beats.

As you make your way through the level, flicking switches and pushing boulders into their homes, you’re also activating those sounds – bringing the level to life in a chorus of resonant synth tones and punchy drum machine hits.

It’s a simple twist to the Sokoban formula, but it makes a big difference to the moment-to-moment gameplay. There’s real satisfaction in hearing the game’s loops gradually take form, burnishing the Sokoban experience with welcome life and energy.

You’ll be grateful for the ‘undo’ button in later levels

But however much you want to charge through like a mad dancer in an implausibly Sokoban-themed nightclub, this is still a pure puzzle game, with no rhythm-action or real-time elements. Resynth’s early levels are straightforward, but they soon enter true head-scratcher territory.

Of course, that’s what you want from a puzzler. But it means your final enjoyment of the game will come down to how much you like Sokoban – and how good you are at it.

This was my ultimate sticking point. I like Sokoban, but I don’t love it. I’m super into electronic music, synthesisers and drum machines – but after a few hours, I’d simply reached my natural limit. Make no mistake: this can be a fiendishly hard game.

Spinning gates and other obstacles vary the block-shoving gameplay

That said, Resynth is without question the most exciting Sokoban game I’ve ever played. If you’re already a fan of the block-pushing puzzler, you’re in for a delightful musical treat.

And for those sitting on the Soko-fence, there’s still a lot to recommend. Beyond the satisfying puzzles, the game has a strong “fiddling with musical toys” appeal – and a level editor that unlocks deeper creative possibilities.

Of course, none of this matters if you can’t stand Sokoban (or electronic music). But otherwise, Resynth’s sub-fiver price makes it well worth a place on your puzzle gaming shelf.

]]>Now augmented, still bad – The Surge DLC reviewhttp://ready-up.net/2018/10/30/now-augmented-still-bad-the-surge-dlc-review/
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 16:42:58 +0000http://ready-up.net/?p=100683Towards the start of this year on my Twitch stream, for the space of around six months, I held a Twitter poll every week to see what game I would play that night. For six straight months, The Surge was on the list. In all of that time, it received only one vote.
Even holographic trains are never on time…

I have a lot of sympathy for Deck13 games. I mean, let’s not pretend that they were the only ones to see Dark Souls become the unexpected smash hit that it was and try to chase that trend. But by and large, they are the ones most commonly called out for that sort of thing. Lots of games get referred to as Souls-like, but to my recollection, Deck13’s Lords of the Fallen is one of the few I can recall getting tagged as an outright Dark Souls clone.

So let’s give them credit that when they returned to that well, they really did go out of their way to try and do something fresh with that style of gameplay and move in a direction that FROM software have been relatively disinclined to look into.

That’s a mighty fine hat you’re wearing…

The Surge is a science fiction title built around mechanically augmented humans trapped in the city size headquarters of a completely benevolent and certainly not evil corporation known as CREO. It adds a few particularly interesting features to the Souls formula, particularly a combat system that allows you to target specific limbs on an opponents body in order to gain specific loot types.

It is also painfully, brutally mediocre. The plot is utterly predictable from start to finish. While the combat is mostly fine, it certainly lacks the tightness that you need from a Souls-like. Nothing has the amount of impact it should; blows don’t feel damaging. The level design would honestly be no different than if you just downloaded a generic science fiction map pack.

But I really wanted to root for it. They were trying, really. Deck13 got a lot of stick over making Lords of the Fallen, and they really did try to listen to us. So when it was released, I picked it up, played it enough that I was cognisant of its failings and still wanted to highlight it for praise. Hence why until now, I didn’t review it, but was trying to draw attention to it on my stream. I believe that within this game is potential if they want to do something with it, and they can get the support they need.

Can you believe they want me to cut grass with this thing?

Which brings us at last to The Good, The Bad and The Augmented – the latest DLC pack for the Surge, and the moment when my faith and hope for this game finally expired. Let’s be clear, everything that sucks about The Surge still absolutely sucks. The combat is still janky as all hell, the weapons are all unimpressive variations on repurposed industrial tools. I’ve heard some people actually claim that’s why the weapons of the Surge don’t impress, that they’re industrial tools repurposed. To which I can only assume that Dead Space’s legacy has been truly and utterly destroyed by EA, because that game was a textbook on how to do that idea correctly.

What does the DLC bring to the game then? Well honestly, when I saw the trailer for it, I actually got pretty hyped up. You see, the trailer implies pretty strongly that the game would be shifted to a Western setting and I’ve got to admit, that sounds awesome. As a fan of the weird west genre, I loved the idea of a western town populated by cyborgs. Unfortunately, that’s not what we have here. Instead, we have a succession of “Challenge Rooms” that split off from the main game. These challenges are essentially just more combat gauntlets with some minor Wild West set dressing. So in answer to the earlier question, the answer is “Not much.”

Why isn’t the whole game about this?

Look, there’s nothing wrong with trying to make yourself a Souls game. It’s a style of game with a lot of legs, a lot of things that can be done with it. But if you just make a direct knockoff, you get Lords Of The Fallen and if you try to do something new with it, you need to put in the work to make it stand on its own. The Surge is an attempt to do something new, and that’s to be applauded. But it didn’t work to begin with and after four rounds of DLC it still doesn’t. My patience for this series is officially used up.

The Surge: The Good, The Bad and the Augmented is available now on Steam, PS4 and Xbox One. Find out more at thesurge-game.com or follow @TheSurgeGame.